Solar Flare Causes "Ground Level Event"

Space Weather News for Sept. 12, 2017 http://spaceweather.com https://www.facebook.com/spaceweatherdotcom GROUND LEVEL RADIATION EVENT: Sunday's powerful X8-class solar flare from departing sunspot AR2673 accelerated a swarm of protons toward Earth, producing a strong solar radiation storm and a "ground level event" (GLE). High-energy particles normally held at bay by Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field penetrated all the way to the ground on Sept. 10th. A leading analyst of GLEs says that radiation dose rates onboard commercial jets flying at high latitudes may have briefly doubled during the episode. Learn more about GLEs and what caused this solar flare to be so effective on today's edition of Spaceweather.com. Remember, SpaceWeather.com is on Facebook! Above: The 'snow' in this Sept. 10th image from a coronagraph onboard the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is caused by a blizzard of energetic particles striking the spacecraft's digital camera. The solar radiation storm was so strong, some of these particles reached the surface of Earth. Share Tweet Forward Copyright © 2017 Spaceweather.com, All rights reserved.